The Case for Deedee
by Funny Elf
Summary: Everyone knows Teresa Agnes as the girl who betrayed her best friend for the impossible to become possible. But what they don't know is that she was just a little girl once, a little girl named Deedee whose only wish was for her friends and family to have a happily ever after. This case study's purpose is to show that this little girl had always lived inside her.
1. Prologue

Prologue

First REAL Memorandum, Date 233. 5.11, Time 9:15

TO: My Associates

FROM: Ava Paige, Chancellor

RE: Thoughts

The girl's life began and ended in tragedy. Of course, her story was not unique; humanity had been accustomed to the terrors of the world, even before the Sun Flares raged the Earth and the disease rampaged, eliminating more than half of the world's population. Still, she could never have fathomed any life more painful than her own. Despite it all, she knew how to dream, and she knew how to dream like the little girls from two centuries before; to fantasize what it would be like to be a princess in a fancy castle, where nobody knew pain or understood the concept of sadness. All her friends and family would live there with her, with two hundred puppies and kittens and the best pizza in the whole wide world.

Of course, it was just a daydream. Everybody had their own version of it, and hers was nothing special. She knew this, and yet, she believed that if she put her mind to it, anything would be possible. Even she knew such thoughts were ridiculous, but what could she do? Hope was not something one just latched onto; rather, it was something that kept one secure. Safe. That was what we were for her.

Eventually, her peers grew to despise her for allowing this Hope to grab hold of her. She had trouble understanding how Hope hadn't held them safe and sound at night, just like it had for her. She felt even more isolated, and she was lonely to begin with.

Like I said, it was tragedy from beginning to end. Her story was not a happy story, and certainly was not something that was easy to watch. Not that anyone else's was a walk in the park to observe, but hers stuck out to me personally like a sore thumb. She reminded me of my daughter. Too much.

After I learned she had died, everything caught up with me. All we had done, all in the name of what she had said on multiple occasions: WICKED IS GOOD.

But how could WICKED ever have been good?

Since I still had access to her killzone patterns, I would go back to them on occasion, going through them all, as if I could bring her back. I feel ashamed to have gone through the most delicate, personal aspects of her life for my own selfish purposes, but I could not help myself.

For reasons I cannot put into words in the moment, I have dedicated a new project for REAL to look into. I gathered files of her original recovered Swipe data and those after the memory loss and strung them into a story of sorts. This is what the following attachment is. Again, I feel uncomfortable doing this, sharing her life as though it were my own, but I am confident that it must be done. More so, in fact, than when I forced my way from being a mere doctor to the Chancellor of WICKED.

Now as Chancellor of REAL, it is my duty to bring our world back to recovery from everything that has happened. My hope is, that by reading _The Case for Deedee_ , we can all learn something valuable in the reconstruction of civilization.


	2. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1**_

" _ **Alright, Dee. Here's a toughie for you." Ricky points at the mud and smirks. He looks like**_

he's bored, but I know he's not. He secretly loves doing this with me, I can tell.

"Alright." I drag my finger through the mud with my fingernail. "Since the matix-"

" _Matrix,_ Deedee."

 _"_ Shut up. Anyway, I can tell that something weird is going on with this _matrix._ I need to de…de…"

"Decode."

"Yeah, that. There's no way your message just says that weird globity goop. You…coded

it." I furrow my brow at that weird word. _Code._

 _Why is Ricky teaching me about code when the most important thing is to learn how to_

 _take care of myself?_ All the other little kids get to go with their older brothers to go hunting and

even go down to the abandoned city to look for anything like food or medicine or stuff like that,

but nope, not me. Mama and Daddy say we're only hanging out around here for "self

preversation" or whatever the heck it was. Something about how our family couldn't survive

without our crazy little village, even though they don't trust us and we don't trust them—at

least, that's what Ricky told me once. They ARE a bit funny, doing weird chants at night and

sacrificing some of our food supply to the "spirits", but I don't think they're bad people. And,

sure, they don't treat us like the rest of the village—Mama and Daddy were professors at some

university, and sometimes act like they know it all, so they do sometimes look at us funny. But,

Daddy didn't even know how to _fish_ when we found them, and Mama had to learn the basics

of sewing from the other women. Outside of learning survival stuff, they don't talk to the other

villagers much, and tell me to only play with my brother, no one else. I sometimes talk to some

of the kids about what I'm learning, and they do too, but I never get a chance to actually play

with them before Mama and Daddy make up an excuse for me to leave them. I don't mind

spending most of my time with Ricky, although I wish we would play _Survive the Hot, Hot Sun_

school instead of _Easy Peasy Math_ school.

At least it's sort of fun.

"Okay. I got it." I point at what he had written in the wet mud a few minutes

ago. It's beginning to sink in making the numbers hard to read, but I had memorized them

within seconds of him writing them just fine:

[13 -26 21] [33 -53 -12] [18 -23 -42] [5 -20 56] [-24 23 77]

" So, you used a…a…INVERSE! Right, an inverse matrix to, um, multiply the normal

coding. You taught me how to do inverses last week, and I still remember the one you used!" I

scramble to Ricky's other side and start dragging my finger through the mud, writing in the

numbers with my long nail.

"You gave me THIS, and told me to find its inverse. That's what I gotta do-

multiply the inverse by groups of three and…VOILA!" A new code is written!

[13 5 5 ] [20 0 13] [5 0 13] [15 14 4] [1 25 0]

"It says "meet me Monday". What the heck?" I glance up at my older brother. Slowly, a

grin grows on his face.

"Honestly, Deedee. How are you only four years old?"

"Age is just a number, big brother." I singsong Mama's favorite saying. "Why did you

come up with that? 'Meet me Monday?' Is THAT code for something else?"

He chuckles. "I don't know, I just remembered that from my Pre Calculus book a few

years ago, and was too lazy to come up with a brand new one." He pushes back his curly black

hair that is spotted with mud, and he helps me stand up from the little mud hole. Normally

when he teaches me stuff he uses a stick and dirt, but since it rained cats and dogs last night

(which, I'm sad to say is just an "expession"), that dirt pile turned to mud and

goop. As good as my memory is, even I don't remember rain or lightening, at least before the

sun attacked the whole world a year ago and my kitty died and everything changed. Mama

thought I'd be scared of the storm, but I really wasn't. It was awesome, and even though our

hut almost fell down, I'm glad it happened. I actually got to play in the mud today because of it,

after all!

Ricky, suggesting that we clean up since we're all muddy, races me to the stream a few

paces away from the mud patch. A few days ago I would have been scared—he didn't teach me

how to swim until a few months in to our stay in the village. Daddy wasn't so sure about letting

Ricky teach me how to swim awhile ago, saying that the sun's "radiation" from that day

everything changed could have made the water dangerous, but Mama told us later we could,

that everybody else was doing it and even drinking from the water instead of the water bottles

from the city. Nobody was getting sick, there weren't always going to be water bottles, and

besides, it's always good to know how to swim. It was a bit harder to learn than my math

lessons, since I was scared, but Ricky helped me to "face my fears", as he put it, and by the next

few days I was swimming like a fishy!

Today, though, I'm not scared. Even though he races me (and beats me), he waits for

me to reach him so he can hold my hand as we step into the warm water that is too deep for

me to go in alone. So far he hasn't let me go, and I know he plans on never letting go until I'm

ready.

My little kitty might be dead, but Ricky will always be right here for me. That thought

makes me smile, so I look up at him and say " Today is going to be a perfect, perfect day."

Ricky squeezes my hand, and the waters of the stream rush by as though my words

mean absolutely nothing.


	3. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

 _ **I don't remember my hair ever being so wet. Such a long time of living in the wilderness**_

without any scissors has let me grow my hair so long, I actually kind of hate it. There was once a

time when snow covered the ground and Ricky and I would come inside to a warm fireplace

after freezing our toes off, but ever since the sun attacked I've known nothing but wishing there

was some kind of way I could learn to shiver again. With my hair getting so long now, it makes

me wish I could be nicer to my flaming hot neck. But getting out of the water today with Ricky I

noticed something: I was kinda chilly! My extra long hair must have soaked up more water than

normal, and that must be making me cold right now!

"Ricky! My hair is actually being nice to my neck today! How about yours?" I whirl

around and around, giggling, as I picture the way my hair must look to him. Wild mess, spinning

in a circle. Hey, just like the world I live in right now!

My brother rolls his eyes. "Deedee, you realize how livid mom will be to see all those

knots in your hair? It was bad enough before we went swimming."

I stop spinning and look at him with a frown. "My… hair is being nice to my neck. I didn't

say it looked pretty. And you didn't answer my question." It's stupid when he doesn't do that. I

ask him questions all the time and with a lot of them he just looks at me funny, like he does

now.

"Nice to my neck? What are you talking about?" He picks me up and puts me on his

shoulders. I'm still mad, though. He should know what I'm talking about. A few seconds later,

he laughs. "Dee, you have a weird way of saying that the temperature is finally starting to go

down."

"So answer my question." I tug on his wet hair gently.

He squeezes my ankles. "Yeah, Dee. My hair right now is the nicest it's ever been."

The trip back to our settlement, we stop talking, but not because we're mad at each

other. Even I'm not mad anymore; he answered my question, after all. Sometimes it's nice to

listen to nature getting better; everyday now I've been hearing more and more birds chirping,

and that makes me so happy. The sun killed so many plants and animals that for awhile I was

really sad because I thought I would never again see anything cute and fluffy again. But one

day, when Ricky was teaching me about systems of equations, I saw a bunny hop by. I think the

hunters got him eventually, but after I saw that bunny I began to see more and more. The

thought makes me smile as my brother carries me down the rocky mountain to our settlement.

Even though there's that little bit of orange in the sky that reminds me of all that death, every

time I see a bunny or a new tree growing or even begin to notice a cool breeze I remember

what Mama said: We're going to make it!

Once we see the village of small log huts at the bottom of the steep hill we just climbed

to the top of, Ricky lets me down, so we can run down the path. Of course he beats me, but

since it wasn't a race I don't care too much. I like running, I really do. Daddy says that one day

maybe I'll outrun everybody left in the whole world. I don't think so, but Daddy can think what

he wants.

Since the sun is high up in the sky, like Ricky told me awhile ago, it is noon, and noon

means lunch time. Lunch time means we need to go to the Meeting Shack, where everybody in

the settlement is welcome to eat meals. People in the settlement are not mean, but they

sometimes stare at us and whisper. I think it's because the first weeks of living with them, my

family stuck out to them. Not only were they smart scientist people, but our entire family

survived the sun attack, and most families didn't survive together. Over time, though, we've

just learned to talk only when needed. Which is hardly ever.

As Ricky and I walk through the village past the funny looking buildings and occasional

trees with little houses in the branches, I begin to wonder about my neighbors. Were they kind

of weird, doing their chants at night and setting aside some of the scarce food as a "sacrifice",

before that crazy day, when life was normal? I think Mama told me once that some people have

a thing called religion, where they try to make these magical things in the sky happy, and that

once the sun attacked, these people must have just taken religion to the next level. She also

told me that that was just their version of hope for the future, it just wasn't ours.

"Ricky?" I blurt out before we enter the Meeting Shack. "What is our version of hope?"

Instead of giving me that funny look he normally gives me when I ask him my questions,

he gets on his knees to look me in the eye. He doesn't say anything right away, but he smiles.

"It's you, Deedee. You're our version of hope."

Before I can ask him what he means, I hear something loud and strange in the sky.

Something I thought I'd never hear again in my life.

Engines.


	4. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

 _ **The ground beneath our feet begins to shake, and dust swirls all over the place, making me**_

cough like crazy. I shove my pointer fingers into my ears, annoyed that the louder-than-thunder

engines were growling like a giant sky monster. After what feels like forever, the little dust

storm settles down, and I'm able to look up in the sky. I see two humongous airships that seem

way too close to the ground-I'm just a kid, and even I know that something that big shouldn't

be brushing against the leaves on top of the sad looking trees. They must have been over the

Meeting Shack to make all that dust shoot out at my face, but now they look to be heading

toward the clearing just outside the village, where we have our gardens.

"There's definitely not enough room to fit two Bergs in that tiny clearing," Ricky

mumbles, saying exactly what I was just thinking.

Most people eat lunch in the Meeting Shack, so it is no surprise to me that the whole

village seems to pour out of that building, munching on what smells to me like cooked deer

meat, when the noise starts to go down. Ricky and I have to step aside to make room for

the people checking it out. Half of them run in the direction of the Bergs right away, seeming to

be super happy at the sight of them. The other half stand outside the Meeting Shack arguing

with each other.

Ricky sees our parents over the heads of the crowd, so he picks me up and we make our

way over to them. They are at the edge, like they are debating whether or not they should join

the others or stay with the angry people.

"What did you two do this time?" Mama grins, and takes me from my brother's arms. "I

thought I've told you to not get into any trouble, and here we are with two Bergs hovering

over us to take you to timeout." Through her joking tone, though, I could hear a little bit of fear

in her voice. The smile doesn't reach her sky-blue-without-orange eyes, and that's when I begin

to worry.

"What in the world are they doing here?" Daddy says, looking at Ricky like he should

know the answer. "They had to have been bringing the supplies to Asheville for a year now.

Why would they be here at all?"

"To rescue us? I mean, if Bergs are running there's gotta be some technology still

working, which means we might be able to go back to the way we used to live…"

"Absolutely not." A woman butts in with her baby on her hip, sucking his thumb.

"There's no way that those were just regular old Bergs here to 'rescue us'. Nature brought us to

our knees—our roots-when the sun came down to visit." She shook her head, her grey braids

swaying back and forth, her head moves so fast. "They aren't done with us yet. We haven't

met the spirits' expectations. The…the demons…"

Daddy laughs, but he doesn't sound like he thinks the lady is funny. "Alright, Grace.

If they aren't here to rescue us, then what are they doing here?"

She gives him a stare that makes me feel like I would melt if she were looking at me. "I

don't know. I'm not the one who converses with the devil, like your children." She

then looks at me. I don't melt, but I do start to sweat.

"'Converse'? What does that mean? And the devil doesn't exist."

"Deedee." Mama warns me with a look of her own, but it looks more scared than angry.

She turns to the woman who must be named Grace. "What has gotten into you? I respect that

you believe in a spirit world, but that gives you no right to attack my children for our family

believing different."

Grace stares at my mama like she's the crazy one. "You don't get it. The spirits brought

us here for a reason, Teresa. To live in nature without the evil we grew up in. _Technology_ - _free_.

Teaching her algebra and calculus and whatever is a pathway _to the devil_." She spits. The baby

begins to fuss a little."Jed always said it wasn't a good idea to teach the children everything we

learned in school. I questioned that, but I get it now. We used to joke around that math was

evil because it was hard, but what use does it have out here? Can you tell me that? None. It has

no place." She steps up to Ricky and her voice gets quiet. Not any nicer, though. "We warned

you to not teach her any of that. Remember, boy?"

He's crying, but he's not sad. He's angry. He takes in a deep breath and answers. "We

enjoy the math lessons. It doesn't affect you at all."

The baby starts wailing, but his mama doesn't notice a bit. She laughs, but just like

Daddy a minute ago, she doesn't find anything funny. "I thought it didn't all this time. Oh how I

was wrong." She turns around and walks away with her screaming baby and yells over her

shoulder.

"Whatever happens next is all on you."


	5. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

 _ **We just stand there for what feels like forever, in shock at what Grace had said. I don't**_

really want to cry, so I just start giggling like crazy. Mama and Daddy and Ricky just look at

me like they are exhausted. Mama puts me down on the ground, and my giggles slowly die

out. Nobody else seems to think anything is funny. I don't blame them, though. That Grace

woman sure was anything but.

Ricky is the first one to speak up. "Maybe we should go check it out? I mean, what

could happen? Maybe whoever's in charge of North Carolina now has ordered to rescue the

various villagers in the area, and we can go home." He looks off in the direction of the two

bergs, which are just floating there, not doing anything. Mama and Daddy look at each other

for a long time and slowly nod.

"Alright, Ricky, let's go find out what this is all about. But you shouldn't get your

hopes up." Daddy picks me up and places me on his shoulders-so I can see the Bergs even

better, I bet.

It isn't a big distance between the Meeting Shack and the clearing-our village isn't

really that large-but we lose sight of the airships a couple times because of the tall, tall

trees that shade the path to the gardens. Some people are climbing down from their

tree houses to join us. They must have been scared at first too. I still don't know what to

think. I'm not really afraid of much, but something rolls around in my stomach, reminding

me of my kitty before the stupid hot sun came to town. What was her name? I ponder to

myself. I have a good memory, so why can't I remember her name?

Before I can think about it anymore, I see the Bergs hovering above us completely.

We made it to the clearing, and in the aisle of the gardens the villagers are laughing and

pointing up at the sky and shouting. Seeing them so much closer now then when we were at

the Meeting Shack, I can't help but stare at the shining blue flames that are shooting out of

the large tubes on the bottoms of the Bergs.

"What are those blue flames coming out of? It's really pretty." I ask, without taking

my eyes off of them.

Daddy says something, but I can't hear him over the sudden growling and squealing

monsters above us. At the same time, both Bergs lower ramps that if they were twice as

long, someone from the ground could touch it. They remind me of the slabs of cardboard I

would use as ramps for my toy cars to race down from my bed, and the thought makes me

sad. I don't have those toys anymore. Or my kitty….Agnes! That was her name.

My thoughts of Agnes are interrupted by a bunch of gasps from everyone around

me, including my family. I look up again at the sky, and the ramps are all the way open, at a

45 degree angle to the ground. Or is it 90? Ricky taught me angles awhile ago. Either way, at

the top of the ramps I notice that the insides of the Bergs are a little visible. I squint my eyes

and I gasp for myself.

They look like…people. Big and chunky people, wearing nothing but green. The only

things that aren't green are their huge black boots and the long, thin black tubes in their

hands.

Everyone stops dancing and shouting for joy. It is silent except for the loud hum of

the blue flames of the monsters. It's like a picture; nobody is moving. The first one to move

is my daddy. He slowly puts me down to the ground, and turns to Mama and starts

whispering frantically. That seems to set off everyone around us, who begin to shout up at

the Bergs, asking what they're doing here, but the weird men wearing the funny green suits

say nothing back. The villagers start angrily yelling up at the people up there, and are

moving around to the point I can't see. Since I'm small, I squeeze my way through the

spaces between everyone so I can get a better look. No one seems to notice. I make my way

to the very front of the group, and I end up right underneath one of the Bergs. I stare up at

them, and they look down on me. Suddenly, I hear Mama's voice in the back of the

crowd. I can't tell what she said, but it sounds like she's angry. Then I hear Daddy yell my

name. I want to run back to my family, but I can't move. I don't know why. I'm also shaking,

and I'm starting to cry. And I realize what's happening: I'm feeling the same way I did when

we were in New York City when the sun attacked, when the lights went out and everyone

drowned and Daddy had to carry me and all that screaming-

All of a sudden, Mama runs up to me and scoops me in her arms. Before she can run

back, something shoots down from above us and hits Mama in the shoulder with a loud

thunk. She groans and slumps to the ground. There is blood. She doesn't move. She must be

too scared to move, too. I look up and I see a tube aimed at me.

The next thing I know, a dart is in my right arm near my shoulder, and everything

goes black.


	6. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5**_

 _ **I don't know whether to say I am dreaming or not. Nothing really makes a whole lot of**_

sense at the moment. I can't see anything, but I feel arms scoop me up, and I hear

swooshing and thunking and screaming. Whoever is carrying me is running, and in the

midst of all the noise I hear the bad words Mama told me to never, ever say no matter

what, and at that moment I realize it's Daddy carrying me. I want to open my mouth, and

tell him to put me down, Mama needs help, not me, but my lips are dry and I need a drink

and it's actually getting really hot again-

 _Swoosh! Thunk!_ I feel myself thrown out of my daddy's arms and into some tall

grass, tickling and itching my arms and legs. I must be in the part of the clearing where the

gardens are no more, where nothing but stubborn blades of tall grass would grow. Without

realizing it at first, I start rubbing my eyes—I now have control over myself again! And

soon enough, I can see. Everything is a bit blurry, but I can see Mama collapsed on the

ground in the clearing, and the bad green men in the bellies of the beasts shooting at the

running and screaming villagers . Daddy is sprawled on the ground in front of me,

breathing heavily. I see a dart in his shoulder, and I remember that I have one too. The

weird thing is, my arm doesn't hurt any, but I see blood gooshing underneath it. I grit my

teeth and yank it out. Still doesn't hurt. I turn back to Daddy and start to pull at the dart in

his shoulder, when suddenly I hear my name being yelled. It's my brother!

Ricky is bending down next to Mama, and he's pushing his weight down on her

chest. He gives up, wipes his hand across his eyes, and screams my name again, and finally

he sees me and Daddy in the grass. He looks in the direction of the airships (one is chasing

one group of people back into the village, and the other is shooting at those running

towards the forest behind Daddy and me), and he runs toward us. I'm scared that he will

get shot too, but no one is aiming at him. It's at that moment that I realize that there are less

screams, and they are further away-there are so many people on the ground in pools of

red in the clearing, and nobody is left running. How many are there? I start to count them,

but Ricky reaches me after I count about ten. There is more than twice that amount, I can at

least say that.

"Deedee! Dad!" He hugs me so tight I can barely breathe. He then looks over at

Daddy, who is trying to sit up. Ricky helps him.

"Dad. I'm right here." He sniffles, and places his hands over Daddy's bloody shoulder.

"I'll get you two cleaned up, ok? It's gonna be just fine…" I feel something sink down my

belly as I realize what he just said. _You two._ Not _you three._

Ricky won't get Mama cleaned up because it's too late.

Daddy doesn't look at Ricky, but instead he looks at me. His eyes look funny, like

he's in another world.

"Deedee…does your head hurt?"


	7. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6**_

 _ **I can't say how long it was between the time Daddy dropped me in the grass and Ricky**_

found us, but I know it couldn't have been more than five minutes. _Five minutes._ Not even

an hour ago I was dancing around like a normal kid who had no worries in the world. _What_

 _happened?_

Ricky gently pulls the dart out of Daddy's shoulder and tears a large part of his shirt,

and presses it against the bloody mess. He is still breathing very heavily, like he's in a lot of

pain.

"Richard. Give me the darts." He murmurs—even just speaking out loud hurts. My

brother hands them over without question and then scoots over to me. He looks at my arm

now, which now that I've calmed down a bit, is beginning to ache with my heart beat.

"Mama's dead. Isn't she?" I whisper as he wraps my arm with the other half of the

strip of cloth. He doesn't answer me, not to make me angry, but because he knows I already

know."Why am I not dead? Or Daddy? We got hit too."

Ricky shakes his head. He doesn't know.

We sit there in the grass for awhile, like we're waiting for something. Waiting for

what, I don't know. Every few seconds I hear a single scream stop suddenly, making me

shiver. Ricky has put me in his lap, his back facing all the bodies behind us in the clearing. I

know he doesn't want me to see it all, but he was too late and he knows it. Daddy keeps

trying to read something on the dart, but his eyes move back in forth while his face says he

doesn't understand. His face scrunches up-his head hurts. Right? He asked me if my head

hurt. It didn't make sense at the time but it makes sense to me now: the dart had something

inside it that makes his head hurt.

Now that I think about it, my head _does_ hurt, but I know it's not because of

whatever was inside the dart. When Mama dropped me, I hit my head and when Daddy

dropped me I hit my head again. I also know it's not the dart's fault because I'm not acting

like Daddy.

He has dropped the darts on the ground and is now rocking back and forth with his

head in his hands. He begins to moan, and curse. Without thinking, I reach for one of them

and put it in my hand. It is not very long—it's about as long as it is from my wrist to my

elbow. It is pretty thin too. Metal on its end points like an arrow I would have drawn in the

mud. _An arrow from the sky monster._

"Deedee, I'm not sure you should be playing with that." Ricky says tiredly, as though

he knows I won't listen to him. Besides, I'm not _playing_ with it.

"Daddy was trying to read something on it. Didn't you see?" I slowly twirl the dart

on my palm, careful to not let the arrow poke my skin. I find what Daddy must have been

reading, and I understand why he's confused.

 **VC321xb47**

"That's it-just a bunch of tiny letters and numbers that make no sense. What do

they mean?" I try to show Ricky but he takes it out of my hand and throws it in the distance.

So I take the other one and do the same.

Ricky gently pushes me off of his lap so he can crawl over to Daddy. He is still

grabbing his head, and right now he is shaking a little bit.

"Dad. You ok?" He puts his hand on Daddy's good arm. Daddy jerks his head at Ricky

like he's surprised he isn't alone. Then his eyes droop the way they did when he told me I

would never see Agnes again.

"No, son. I'm not okay." He groans as he tries to sit up straight and he massages his

head with his hands. "Those were not just some random letters and numbers, kids."

"Do you know what it means?"

Daddy doesn't answer for awhile. In fact I don't hear the bergs anymore. There are

still some people screaming in the distance, though.

Finally, Daddy responds. "It's buzzing bees. They're in my head." The effort of saying

those words breaks my heart. I'm aching-my head throbs a little bit and my arm hurts too,

but I feel fine in general. Daddy looks like he's hurting so badly. I crawl up to him and hug

him, but he begins to scream. Ricky yanks me away.

"STAY. AWAY." Daddy rocks back and forth again. "They are going to get you too!"

He then gets on his hands and knees and starts banging his head against the ground, yelling

the word "out" each time it hits.

"Daddy! STOP!" I struggle against Ricky's arms, which tighten around me as I try to

run back to the miserable man in front of us. I turn around and look at my brother. "We

need to help him!"

"In my head…in my head…" Daddy starts to chant as he bangs his head against the

ground. His whole body is shaking.

At this point I realize Ricky and I are standing up; Daddy continues his chant and

begins to cough up something that looks green and brown.

"We need to do something!" I look up at my brother pleadingly, but even though his

eyes are welling up with tears as well he shakes his head.

"Time to go." Ricky gathers me in his arms, and runs toward the woods carrying me

like a baby. I'm screaming for him to put me down, but he only runs faster and Daddy

chants and screams louder and the whole world feels hotter and hotter.


	8. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7**_

 _ **Tonight I dream of gigantic buzzing bees that cover the blue-orange sky. I know it's a**_

dream because bees are never as large as a berg, and there's no possible way a thousand

could fit in the sky above the village. I counted all the way up to a thousand. Even I

shouldn't be able to do that. Yes, it can only be a dream, then. Each bee has a number, and

they all begin to chant the stupid message that Ricky encoded for my math lessons: meet

me Monday. Buzzes in between words, the words screeched like nothing you'd ever heard

before.

I didn't expect to sleep at all. Ricky ran far, far away from the village. Away from

Mama and Daddy's bodies. I was screaming for a long time, and I tried to get out of my

brother's arms. He didn't try to tell me to shut up, but he did hold on tighter and began to

run even faster when I began to thrash and howl like our old neighbor's sad dog Willy

would.

After what felt like hours of him running, my voice finally gave out and I gave up my

struggle. I really wanted to cry , but the tears wouldn't come. We eventually came across a

small pond of yucky water which I thought I would never stop drinking. Ricky pulled me

away and told me I would get sick if I drank too much. He didn't pick me back up, but he

grabbed my hand and we trudged down a slope to a sad plot of land. There is no grass

here, and no trees either. What once must have been mud is now hard dry dirt. There are a

few rocks built into the slope of the hill, and there is a space in between a rock and the

ground that is big enough for Ricky and I to crawl into. That's where we decided to sleep,

even though the sun was nowhere near to setting. Ricky told me to lie down, to try to get

some rest. I faced away from him, and sat up, determined not to sleep. I was going to wait

for his snores, and then I would run back to the village and check on Daddy. I knew Mama

was dead, but Daddy was definitely still alive when we left him. Maybe he was okay.

But my eyelids were as heavy as the stones I held tightly in my fists. My plan failed,

and the buzzing of the bees haunt me even as I begin to wake up.

Ricky is looking at me now. Moonlight seeps into the little cave and makes his face

look like it did when Mama painted his face white to be a ghost for some far off holiday that

no one cares about anymore. I was Snow White. It was really fun, I think.

But we're not having fun right now. Ricky just stares at me in a way I know we're

not having a contest to see who won't blink the longest. I think he's trying to tell me

something, but I don't know what. Whatever it is, I know I have to say this.

"We're going to make it. Just like Mama used to say."

Ricky turns away his face as he begins to cry. I crawl over to him and I cry too. I

don't say anything more, but I hope he knows that I'm glad that we are both still alive, and

that I know he can protect me. He's my big brother; he'll never leave me.

We try to go back to sleep, and I find myself in his lap, his arms cradling me. He

doesn't say anything for awhile, but once he does I'm already falling asleep. It isn't until I

wake up to the hot, hot sun when I'm able to grasp what he said.

"What if I don't want to make it?"


	9. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8**_

 __ _ **I wake up not feeling like I slept at all. I think about my brother's words and**_

can't help but remember he had said those words before. One night, Ricky was crying

really hard. This was before we found the village. We were living underground, where the

floodwaters had already rushed through, leaving everything feeling humid and damp. He

was crying because he finally understood the girl he loved was dead. Her name was Nikki.

I fall back asleep, but my dream is weird. It isn't normal. I'm pretty sure it's the memory of

the day the sun attacked. I have not thought about it in a long, long time. In fact, I'm pretty

sure I forgot about it, but I don't have much time to be amazed that I forgot at all; the

memory hits me hard. Harder than rocks.

The five of us are eating at a restaurant. It is underground, near a subtrans station. I

am eating chicken nuggets and drinking a chocolate milkshake, and Ricky and Nikki are

giggling about something. Mama and Daddy are waiting for their food to come. Suddenly,

the lights turn off.

My parents' wristphones glow among the dozens around us, everyone trying to

figure out what is wrong. Nikki is the first to point out that there is no service. At this

point, everyone is just annoyed. The emergency lights turn on, and everyone is whispering.

I turn to Mama and, in a loud voice, I say our ears are working just fine. Mama shushes me

but everyone nearby our table laughs.

Voices begin to grow louder (because of me?) and many people get up and leave the

restaurant. Someone loudly announces that there is a power outage in the entire subtrans

station and surrounding restaurants. Apparently something happened above ground in the

city. Several people decide to go check it out.

Nikki looks over at me, worried. I bet she thinks I'm going to cry or something which

is silly, because I've never been scared of the dark. She has been like a big sister to me ever

since I was a little baby—that's when Ricky met her and they started "dating", whatever the

heck that means. For as long as I can remember, Nikki has taught me what she was learning

in math. I don't know why she started, but she did. I think it's really fun.

Anyway, Nikki asks me to tell her ten digits of pi, so I do. Everybody sitting at nearby

tables try to do the same thing, but everybody forgets what comes after 3.1415. This

makes me giggle a lot—it's not THAT hard to remember five more numbers! Everybody is

smiling and laughing, and we don't care that it's dark. At least, just for a little bit. Because

two men come running back into the restaurant yelling that we need to go. Now.

Once I hear the sound of the ocean, everything fades and I wake up again.


End file.
